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Declaration of Principles 

ADOPTED BY THE AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY, JANUARY 20, 1870. 



The prevalence of the sentiment that, with the extinction 
of slavery in our country, the useful service of Colonization 
Societies has ceased, and that the}?" are not in sympathy with 
the colored people and their rights as American citizens, de- 
mand a declaration on the part of such Societies that may tend 
to correct an erroneous impression, and to increase their use- 
fulness : 

"VVe, the American Colonization Society, do therefore now 
declare, that the wonderful' Providential deliverance of about 
four millions of colored persons from the thraldom of slavery, 
has in no wise diminished the field of our operation or abated 
the motive and incentive of our action ; 

That, in the fact of the freedom of choice and opportunity 
given to so many more to return to the land of their forefathers, 
wc see the prospect that many more will be willing to seek a 
-hom.o where thc}^ and their children will be beyond the reach 
of a disparaging social prejudice from a distinction of color, and 
lied scope for the highest social development; 

That we sincerely rejoice in the great event which has 
resulted in recognizing the people of the colored race as cit- 
izens of the United States; which gives them a perfect right 
to make this country their permanent abode; 

That we yet believe that many, in the exercise of a perfect 
freedom of choice, will desire to settle in Africa, and will gladly 
embrace opportunities of emigration thither, feeling that they 
will have there free scope and greater consideration, exempt 
from an unjust social prejudice, with a more perfect develop- 
ment of their enterprise, their understandings, and their man- 
hood ; and will also there participate in our great purposes of 
colonizing Africa: nanlely, for the welfare and happiness of 
the people of Liberia, the suppression of slave-trading on the 
Coast and in the interior of Africa, and the extension there of 
Christian civilization ; 

That they, the descendants of Africans, will feel and appre- 
ciate the duty to be mainly theirs of becoming the actual settlers 
on the Coasts of Africa, since there they can find a genial 
climate ; that her heathen darkness can only be penetrated by 






2 Declaration of Principles. 

them, and by .them mainly "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out 
her hands to God;" that they alone, and are yet, to execute 
this prophecy; 

That, nevertheless, we hold that the white race of our 
country are under the deepest obligation to justice, to Chris- 
tianity, and to God, to aid in this work of the civilization of 
Africa, which can best be done by returning those willing to 
go to their fatherland, to carry with them the Gospel faith 
and truths; to plant in Africa Christianity, with Christian 
education and Christian civilization; to become there the 
practical missionaries of love to man and love to God; to 
redeem a continent from the dai'kest superstition to the light 
of the Gospel of Christ, than which no higher object can 
engage the attention, or employ the means of a Christian 
world. God is no respecter of persons, and all souls are alike 
precious to Him. Uncounted millions die there in each gen- 
eration, without ever having heard of Him "who hath abolished 
death, and brought life and immortality to light through the 
Gospel." " God, our Saviour, will have all men to be saved, and 
to come unto the knowledge of the Truth." 

That, in view of the manifold and great benefits, moral, 
social, and political, which may, by God's blessing, be cx- 
pected'to flow to the African race, both in this country and 
in Africa, from the vigorous and successful prosecution of the 
work of the American Colonization Society; in view of the 
blessed influence which will be exerted upon the welfare of 
the tribes of Africa, through the prospcritj^ of the Christian 
nation of Liberia, by the moral and intellectual elevation of 
her citizens, by the increase and improvement and strengthen- 
ing of her schools and colleges and churches; and also in view 
of the fact that the work of the Society has been and is neces- 
sary and admirably adapted to prepare the way for, and to 
farther the civilization and Christianization of, that vast con- 
tinent — so long shrouded in gloom — the American Colonization 
Society, at this important period of' its history, earnestly 
renews its appeal to.the Christian Philanthropists of this nation 
to extend to this great work of Christian benevolence their 
countenance and influence, to give liberal contributions to its 
Treasury, and to make unceasing prayer to the God and 
Father of all, for His blessing upon this and every proper 
eflbrt for the regeneration of Afi'ica. 



Declaration of Principles. 



SENTIMENTS OF A LIBERIAN. 



The Eev. Edward W. Blyden, born at St. Thomas, West 
Indies, in 1832, of parents entirely connected with the African 
race, and for the last twenty years a resident and citizen of 
the Republic of Liberia, and now Fulton Professor in the Col- 
lege at Monrovia, thus discourses, in a late elaborate commu- 
nication in one of the leading American Quarterlies: 

"It is difficult to understand how, with the history of the 
past accessible, the facts of the present before their ej^es, and 
the prospoct of a clouded future, or unvailed only to disclose 
the indefinite numerical increase of Europeans in the land, the 
blacks of the United Statas can hope for any distinct, appreci- 
able influence in the country. We cannot perceive on what 
grounds the most sanguine among their friends can suppose 
that there will be so decisive a revolution of popular feeling in 
favor of their proteges as to make them at once the jjolitical 
and social equals of their former masters. Legislation cannot 
secure them this equality in the United States any more than 
it has secured it for the blacks in the West Indies. During the 
time of slavery, everything in the laws, in the customs, in the 
education of the people was contrived with the single view of 
^degrading the negro in his own estimation ajid thai of others. 
Now, is it possible to change in a day the habits and character 
which centuries of oppression have entailed? We think not. 
More than one generation, it apjDears to us, must pass away 
before the full effects of education, enlightenment, and social 
impi'ovement will be visible among the blacks. Meanwhile 
they are being gradually absorbed by the Caucasian ; and before 
their social equality comes to be conceded they will have lost 
their identity altogether, a result, in our opinion, extremely 
undesirable, as we believe that, as negroes, they might accomp- 
lish a great work which others cannot perform. Eut even if they 
should not pass away in the mighty embrace of their numerous 
white neighbors; grant that. they could continue to live in the 
land, a distinct people, with the marked peculiarities they pos- 
sess, having the same color and hair, badges of a former thral- 
dom — is it to be supposed that thej can ever overtake a people 
who so largely outnumber them, and a large proportion of 
whoin are endowed with wealth, leisure, and the habits and 
means of study and self-improvement? If they improve in 



4 Declaration of Principles. 

culture and training, as in time they no doubt will, and become 
inlelligcnt and educated, thei'e may rise up individuals among 
them, here and there, who will be respected and honored by 
the whites; but it is plain that, as a class, their inferiority will 
never cease until they cease to be a distinct people, possessing 
peculiarities which suggest antecedents of servility and deg- 
radation. 

"We pen these lines with the most solemn feelings — grieved 
that so many strong, intelligent, and energetic black men 
should be wasting time and labor in a fruitless contest, which, 
expended in the primitive land of their fathers — a land that so 
much needs them — would produce in a comparatively short 
time results of incalculable importance. But what can we'do? 
Occupying this distant stand-point — an area of negro freedom, 
and a scene for untrammeled growth and development, but a 
wide and ever-expanding field for benevolent effort; an outly- 
ing or surrounding wilderness to be reclaimed; barbarism, of 
ages to be brought over to Christian life — we can only repeat 
with undiminished earnestness the wish we have frequently 
expressed elsewhere, that the eyes of the blacks m ly he opened 
to discern their true mission and destiny; that, making their 
escape from the house of bondage, they may betake themselves 
to their ancestral home, and assist in constructing a Christian Afri- 
can EMPIRE." 

VOLUNTARY TESTIMONY. 

A young man of unusual intelligence, means, and enterprise, 
who removed with his wife and two children, from Columbus, 
Georgia, thus addressed his father, after nearly a twelvemonths' 
residence and experience: 

"Liberia is a good country. It needs population ; and, with 
population, intelligence, wealth, and Christianity. With these 
it would be second to no country upon the globe. So far as I 
am concerned it suits me. Of course thei-e are no large and fine 
cities with ever}' convenience as in the United StatCs ; no rea- 
sonable person will expect to see such ; but you will be in a 
free country, one of your own, and one that debars hone of its 
citizens from all the rights and privileges of a freeman. You 
Avill be upon free soil, and y(i\i will breathe free air, with no one 
to make you afraid, which is not the case in America." 



PuBLiSHKD BY xnii: Amkkicax Colonization Society. 









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